


The Curse of the Thin Walls

by Stria (Asia117)



Category: SKAM (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Neighbors, Cookies, F/F, Femslash February, M/M, Rollerblades & Rollerskates, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-20
Updated: 2017-02-20
Packaged: 2018-09-25 22:12:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9848513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Asia117/pseuds/Stria
Summary: Eva, just like every time she’s in front of a really pretty girl, feels suddenly very stupid. And when Eva feels very stupid, she starts babbling.[Or, Noora is Eva's new neighbour. Fluff ensues.]





	

**Author's Note:**

> Did I already tell you that I love Eva and Noora and that they sometimes visit me in my sleep to write fluffy stuff about them? No? Well, now you know.

Eva doesn’t usually do this kind of things, she can swear on her life. Or on her laptop, which is probably worth more than her life. But anyway. She really doesn’t do these things.

She used to be really nosy, when she was in high school, and that could be because her high school sweetheart was literally the person everybody went to if they wanted gossip, but she’s not like that anymore. Isak can testify, and he and Even are her new flatmates, so it’s not like they don’t know her.

But still, she was in the bathroom having a bit of an Eva-time—by which she means she was putting on her expensive hair mask, she has that other kind of Eva-time when Even is not sleeping in his and Isak’s room, possibly—and she heard crying from the other side of the wall. The walls in the complex are very thin, and Eva realised too late she’d need ear plugs for the nights when Even and Isak are feeling particularly frisky, but she still hasn’t heard anything from the neighbours after she heard them moving in a few weeks ago.

Well, until the crying, anyway.

So here she is, hair mask still in place—she won’t throw away 300nok of stuff, what the fuck—strawberry ice cream in hand, in front of her neighbour’s door, ringing three times for good measure.

The person who opens the door is the most beautiful girl Eva has ever seen. She looks dishevelled, her blonde hair pushed up in something that resembles a nook, and eyes rimmed red, but she’s still the most beautiful girl Eva has ever seen. She looks at Eva, confusion written on her face, and then sniffs, a bit haughtily. “Did you need something?”

Eva, just like every time she’s in front of a really pretty girl, feels suddenly very stupid. And when Eva feels very stupid, she starts babbling. “Hi no it’s that I was actually in the bathroom, which you surely can see, like, from my hair, and I heard you or—or someone else, like, crying. And I just thought that, like, you know, you could—you could use a pick me up or something, but I only had strawberry ice cream because my flatmate is on a healthy roll this month and I don’t even know if you like it but you know just in case—like, ice cream is always good, probably. Unless you’re lactose intolerant, that is. Or vegan. Are you vegan?”

The blonde girl is looking at Eva with a bemused expression, but the corners of her lips are turned up a bit now. “I’m not a vegan, no. Or lactose intolerant.”

Eva has blushed redder than a tomato, and she nods. “That’s—good. That’s good,” she says, and wavers a bit, unsure of what to say. “So, uh, if you want the ice cream…”

The blonde does something that’s half a snort and half a cough. “Why don’t you come inside?”

The girl’s house is nice, if a bit empty. She waves around, looking a bit embarrassed. “I just moved here, so it still lacks personality.”

“Um, yes. I—I know. I’ve lived here for three years.” Eva closes her mouth with an almost audible clack.

“Thin walls, isn’t it?” The blonde’s voice is not unkind, and Eva nods, wishing the pits of hell could open up now and swallow her whole.

Leaving the ice cream tub for her neighbour, obviously.

“Yeah, I’m—I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” the blonde smiles, and takes the ice cream tub from Eva’s hands. “You’ve just come to save me, ice cream and all. Shall we enjoy it together?”

Eva nods wordlessly, following the blonde into the kitchen, where she takes two cups and two teaspoons. “Oh, by the way, I’m Noora.”

 

***

 

“And she was so cute, so cute! I can’t even!” Eva is pouting into her beer, and she’s not even tipsy yet. Isak slings his arm around her, his legs on Even’s ones.

“Are you crushing on her already?” He asks doing that thing he does with his mouth when he tries not to smirk. Eva pouts some more.

“I just saw her once and I had that fucking hair mask. Not possible.”

“Well, your hair _is_ exceptionally shiny now,” says Even, not bothering to hide his full smirk. Eva squints her eyes and flips him off.

“It’s useless now. She’ll think of me as someone who wears a velvet bath robe and puts green goo in her hair.”

Isak makes a very acute sound, still trying to mask his amusement. Honestly, he could just let that go, have his laugh and then they could talk for real. “But it’s cute though. That you feel like that.”

Eva closes her eyes. She knows what Isak is thinking, she hasn’t felt like that since Vilde took off to go study in Australia. They’re still friends—Eva tends to stay friends with every ex she has, Jonas being the most notable example, but she still skypes with Chris and they occasionally see each other—but they weren’t ready for a long-distance relationship. Not if they were at 24 hours by plane.

So yeah, Eva has a bit shut down after that happened, preferring to focus on her studies for once, shamelessly using Isak to give her the strength she needs to take her exams, and she hasn’t set her eyes on anybody. Till Noora, apparently.

“I—I don’t know. I just wish it was in a different situation, probably,” she says, and Isak kisses her temple, sweet and understanding, like Isak always is.

 

***

 

She starts seeing Noora everywhere. When she gets out for uni in the morning, they take the lift together, and when she’s going grocery shopping Noora is there at the vegetable section, mumbling about the benefit of yellow versus green bell peppers. And when Eva is looking if they’ve got mail, Noora is coming back home and she holds the lift open for Eva to take, and it should be so strange because, after all, Noora just moved here, it makes sense that they can have similar timetables, but still makes Eva’s heart beat that much faster every single time

She tells Jonas when they’re at the skate park and they’re taking a break. She wants to kick her feet a bit, but she’s got her new rollerblades on, and she doesn’t want to ruin them. “I might like a girl,” she says.

Jonas blows out the smoke and looks at her, eyes a bit red. “That’s cool,” he murmurs. “Who’s her?”

“The neighbour. She just moved in and I shared an ice cream with her a couple weeks ago.” She doesn’t tell Jonas about the circumstances, she feels it wouldn’t be right. Jonas just nods.

“Why don’t you go for it?”

Eva shrugs. “She could be straight.”

“You said that about Vilde too.” And Jonas’ gaze is knowing. Eva steals the joint from Jonas and takes a long drag, closing her eyes.

The smoke burns her lungs and she tries to keep it inside as long as she could. She manages to blow it out without coughing at all. “Vilde was my friend, though.”

“This is even better. If it goes wrong, you won’t lose anything more than a good neighbour.”

Eva snorts, gives Jonas back the joint, and skates backwards towards the half-pipe. “I’ll think about it, okay?”

 

***

 

She thinks about it.

She thinks about it every time she sees Noora smiling up at her sweetly, sometimes with intent—mostly when there’s Mr Gerber in the lift, and god knows what does the man eat because staying in his vicinity for more than two seconds feels like dying—and Eva can’t avoid thinking about it. Can’t avoid thinking about the lingering looks, and about the fact that Noora always touches her lightly on the arm when she greets her, almost challenging her to do the same.

She doesn’t really share other private moments with Noora till she’s trying to study with Isak in his and Even’s room, one evening, and Even comes to her smirking. “I think there’s someone who needs you at the door.”

Noora is there, looking as embarrassed as ever. Eva can _feel_ that Isak and Even are spying on them from their room, and tries desperately to ignore it. “Hi, Noora! Um…”

Noora bites her lower lip, and Eva can’t avoid tracking the gesture. “I just—I wanted to ask if you had, uh. Sugar? Yes, I need sugar to bake. I’m doing biscuits.”

Even must have seen Noora and turned on his heels to find Eva. He totally would. “Yes! Sugar! We have sugar! I can do that.” Or she could shut her fucking mouth and stop making a fool of herself. “Are you baking for a special occasion?”

Noora smiles and shakes her head. “I’m just doing some _gallettas_ , to pass the time.”

Eva did take Spanish in high school, but fuck her if she remembers something now. She just nods, rifling through the common shelf to find the sugar. “Right, you mentioned that you were in Madrid?” She asks, feigning nonchalance. Truth is, she remembers everything Noora said when they were eating the ice cream together. She lived in Madrid and she went to high school and took her _grado_ there. She’s now doing a Master’s Programme in media and journalism at UiO. And sometimes she forgets which Norwegian word she’s meant to use, and uses the Spanish one instead, it’s fucking endearing.

“Yes, Madrid, you got it right.” Eva finds the sugar, finally. She gives it to Noora, a bit hesitant to let her go.

“I, uh…”

“Do you want to help me with the _gallettas_?” Asks Noora, and Eva thinks she can see a bit of a blush dusting her cheeks. “I—I mean, if you have time, that is.”

Eva thinks for a moment to that political science book that _really_ needs to be studied, and then nods. “Absolutely, I have all the time in the world.”

Noora smiles big, and Eva can’t muster up the strength to care about uni right now.

 

***

 

She comes home with a bunch of soft _gallettas_ , and a skip in her steps. Isak detach himself from Even when he sees her, and raises his eyebrows. “So I take that the baking went well?” He doesn’t wait for her answer, and takes a warm biscuit, biting into it and giving the rest to Even.

“She’s so nice, I want to die.” Eva puts the biscuits on the table and goes right into Isak’s open arms. “Why do I have to crush on someone, why,” she asks tonelessly.

“Because you’re human, and humans _feel_ things, Eva.” Isak’s voice is kind but just on that side of mocking that makes her bite his shoulder lightly, in warning.

“If you start again with that Olivia Dunham crap I’m divorcing you. I’m going to live with Jonas.”

Isak snorts. “Good luck with having him helping you study, then.”

Eva just elbows him.

 

***

 

She tells Vilde on a Sunday evening, while she’s skyping with her. Vilde is having breakfast, and she looks beautiful and refreshed as always. Eva kind of interrupts her when she’s talking, and she feels a bit bad after it. “Vilde, I might like a girl.”

Vilde is silent for a moment, all the talk about her new dress forgotten, and takes a long sip from her cup of coffee. Then, she smiles big. “That’s so beautiful, Eva. Who’s that?”

“Are—aren’t you angry about it?” Eva is not that good at talking about her feelings, but she became good at it with Vilde, because Vilde had to overcome so much social pressure in high school, and they didn’t want any miscommunication to come between them.

Vilde raises her eyebrows. “Listen, Eva,” she says, and puts her cup of coffee away—a miracle, knowing how much Vilde values her coffee. “We agreed that we couldn’t do a long-distance relationship. This doesn’t mean we have to wait for each other till we decide that after all our career is going to bring us in the same city. It’s not how it works.”

Eva scratches her head. “Yes, but—” but they didn’t break up because they grew out of loving each other, is the thing.

“But? No buts, Eva,” Vilde says, and she looks right into the camera. “You’re a beautiful girl, and you’re full of love to give. So what if that girl isn’t me? I care about you, and I want you to be happy. And if you’re pining for someone who’s on the other side of the world, you’re not really happy.” Vilde is smirking now. “Although I must say, pining for all this, I can almost understand you.”

Eva laughs and shakes her head. “I will always _pine_ for you.” She makes air quotes at the word _pine_. “But… are you sure you’re not angry?”

“I knew what that meant when I agreed to break up, baby.” Vilde says. “I will always love you, but our time is gone. And we had an amazing time. Being friend is not worse than being lovers.”

Eva remembers of the Vilde she met in first year, so scared of admitting she was a lesbian, and so crushed under the social pressure. She was nothing like this amazing young woman, so happy and tranquil, sure of herself and so, so beautiful. “I will always love you though.”

Vilde smiles big and kind. “And I will always love you. This doesn’t mean we won’t have stories with other people, though.”

Those are the moments Eva misses Vilde the most, because she wishes she could hug her so hard and bury her face in Vilde’s neck, but Vilde will be back maybe in the summer, if her Master’s lets her breathe a bit. “Okay.”

“Just keep me updated, baby. I want to know how it goes.” Vilde raises her eyebrows. “And I want to meet her, eventually.”

Eva smiles. “Aye aye captain.”

 

***

 

Eva tells Noora a couple weeks after. In the middle there’s been lingering looks and lingering touches, and she’s almost going crazy with them. At least, one way or another this thing will have an end, she thinks, and if it goes bad she can just ask Isak and Even to go clubbing tonight, chasing away everything with a nice someone to fuck tonight.

Turns out she doesn’t have to worry about it, because as soon as Eva utters the words _I think I might have a crush on you_ Noora is taking her face between her hands and kissing her fiercely, there, on her front door.

(Because of course, Eva just had to tell her on the front door, without even waiting for Noora to invite her to get in. whatever.)

Kissing someone who’s not Vilde after they’ve been together four years is… strange. Vilde was a constant in Eva’s life, Noora is a novelty, electrifying, beautiful, with the softest lips ever, and her hips like an invite for Eva to put her hands on. When Eva pushes her up on the door, she doesn’t object, and just tugs on her hair a bit, going like putty in her hands.

She forgets for a moment they’re actually out in the open, where everyone could see, and it’s only when she hears someone coughing politely that she detaches herself, blushing deep red and half-covering Noora with her body, to spare her from the embarrassment, at least.

Even is standing there, grocery bags in hand and amused expression. “You might want to take it inside, just saying.”

Eva opens her mouth, but Noora beats her to it. “You know what? This is actually a good idea.”

They close the door to Even’s laughing.

 

(Later, when they’re lying on the couch, clothes strewn over all the living room, Noora tells her.

“I knew it, those wall are really paper-thin, and I could her you talking about me sometimes.”

Eva almost wishes she could be swallowed by the fiery pits of hell, but it all turned out well in the end, so why bother.)

**Author's Note:**

> If you liked it consider leaving a kudo or commenting, that keeps me going! Or come to find me on [tumblr](http://cosenoditea.tumblr.com)!
> 
> The Olivia Dunham bullshit refers to the protagonist of [Fringe](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29bSzbqZ3xE), which was one of my favourite shows. Olivia had this philosophy according to which her emotions were her real strenght in her work, and I still live up to what she says in the show.


End file.
